MacMadame

You will if you go in the Water. Your excess skin will just FLOAT and it will be very obvious what is skin and what is not.

It's meant to be mixed with water though. It's supposed to be like Swiss Miss...

I want a nap. But it's late enough that it will be bedtime.

Heh, I have a lifetime Jenny Craig card too! But I have a feeling they don't sell this one: https://017218f.netsolstores.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=138 and that's the one I've decided I have to have.

I shot myself up with heperin with my last pregnancy. You just have to shot into subcutaneous fat. But the easiest place to do that is the belly. I did mine on the lower side of it and was black & blue (and purple and yellow) all over from it.

Ooh, confirmation for my little pet theory. I'm so happy now, I could spit!

Um, I a she. :cool2:

Innocent until proven guilty is a LEGAL concept. It means that the prosecutor has to prove the defendant is guilty. In other countries, the defendant is assumed guilty and has to prove he's innocent. That is ALL it means. It does not mean random people on a message board can't have opinions about the actions of someone famous or even not so famous.

I just don't enjoy alcohol since my surgery. I go from sober to slurring my words with just a few sips and then 15 min. later I'm cold, stone sober. I can't get to that mellow stage. It takes all the fun out of it. You need to be on FaceBook. :smile: Ahem. :cool2: You mean the troll who ate the chicken? Not worth responding to IMO.

That's great! There are tons around here. Check out "GoTRIbal" too. It's a group dedicated to promoting triathlon to women. You can see their website at: www.gotribalnow.com

I've looked into PS and what I've seen is that it's really hard to do arms and thighs well. People are the most disappointed in those procedures. So I figure mind have to be really bad to get PS and right now they aren't. What bugs me the most are the flap of skin under my boobs and the flaps of skin that form around my bra on the sides. I also noticed today that my face looks kind of like a bulldog's! That's new. :thumbup1:

What pissed me off is that someone complained that I was on Facebook "all the time" during work hours. They claimed I was updating my status during the day. First of all, I hadn't updated my status during the day in the past two weeks and secondly, the only way you can know if someone updates their status is to BE ON FACEBOOK. So the person was basically saying "MacMadame is on FaceBook all the time and I know that because I am too." Stupid weasels. Anyway, here's the link to the post. (I'm WAH today so I don't have to worry about people peeping over my shoulder.) http://www.obesityhelp.com/member/macmadame/blog/2009/06/08/long-term-sleeve-experiences/

I think when you do the lower body lift, sometimes they do a bit of lipo too. It just depends. I really, really don't want to get PS but I'm at the point where I will if I have to. I'm going to give it 6 months and see what happens.

Try the following, but be warned that for the first two months lots of stuff you'll like later will still taste like a$$. Chike (from Chike Nutrition) whey Gourmet chocolate and PB Protein Hot Chocolate from Nashua Nutrition or Healthwise or HealthSmart Max Protein (some GNCs carry it, but not mine) FAGE Total 0% Fat greek yogurt (needs sweetener) Syntrax nectar (various fruit flavors)

A stall when moving from liquids to food is very common. My theory is that it's water weight due to the change from all liquids to adding in mushy/soft food that has to be digested more.

My program lists iron as an optional supplement. You can take too much iron so I won't take extra unless my labs show I need it.

I think they are looking for more long-term (5 years out) studies in peer reviewed journals. And to avoid having to pay for anything they can avoid for as long as possible, of course.

He sounds like a big baby. Why does he have to talk to them? Is he then going to come back and say "but they said.." then when you counter what they said, say "well, let me check with them" and then go back and forth forever???

I'm glad to read these as, once you get to goal, it can be hard to remember why you wanted to do it in the first place. I remember having goals when I first started out such as wanting to not put my kid off every time she asks me to go to the pool with her. I did want to go back to ice skating or take up ballroom dancing but later on I changed that goal to doing an Ironman. :thumbup1: It's nice to be able to tie my shoes without having to sit down, too. Buying regular clothes in a regular store and looking good in them. Being off the BP meds. That was a major one for me. I hated taking the pills because of what they represented to me.

John Lomaco from Big Medicine says the laser stuff doesn't work that great compared to traditional lipo. He posted about this quite a bit on LapBandTalk, if people want to check out what he said.

Really, even losing 10 lb. is enough to make a big difference in the liver. Your liver should be fantastic with your weight loss.

I know a lot of people have stalls, but I never do. But now that I'm at the end and not really losing weight any more (at least I think I'm not), I have experienced getting smaller without the weight changing. I think it's my loose skin being reabsorbed back into my body combined with my strength training building muscle.

I've had a open gallbladder and two c-sections. This was the easiest by far.

I agree with everyone else... go for it! As for band vs. sleeve, I think that's something you have to take on a case-by-case basis. Some 18 year olds just aren't mature enough for bariatric surgery so having a band means you can take it out and wait until they are older to try again. But, like Steve said, it probably also means a re-operation later on down the line. It's something to talk about with the doctor and your daughter, for sure! Oh and check out this guy.... he's the son of a guy I used to work with. He's 18 and just got a band and is documenting his journey. Your daughter may find watching someone her age go through the process to be helpful: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jakes-Journey/92292716733?ref=search

Yes, I used LapSF. I love them! Dr. Cirangle was my surgeon. I love him too! :thumbup: I was local so my experience will be a bit different from someone coming in from out-of-town. My surgery time was at 8 am and they wanted me to check in at 6 am so we drove up the day before and stayed in a hotel. (Going over the Bay Bridge at rush hour is just too iffy... could take 45 min, could take 4 hours.) We stayed at the Cathedral Hotel, which is affiliated with the hospital in some way. We got a special rate that was very good for a downtown SF hotel. The hotel is clean, but old. It was okay. I've stayed in much worse in SF for a similar price, but if you aren't used to the prices in SF, you may be disappointed. They told us it was 6 blocks from the hospital but it was more like 18 if you walked. (There were two small streets without lights for every big street a car would notice.) We walked and were sorry. For the sleeve, the hospital stay is overnight. It generally works out to about 36 hours for most people. Then I went home. If you are from out-of-town, you go back to a hotel instead and have a follow-up before they let you go home. I had my follow-up visit at 3 weeks and I go to most of the support meetings in San Jose and all my follow-up appointments. I had one follow-up appointment over the phone and that was fine. I've definitely seen Dr. C more than the schedule says too. Plus once I had to call the emergency line and it was answered right away by Dr. C. (I think Dr. C and Dr. J take turns with it.) I've used the nutritionist once and the counselor zero times. Dr. C is my surgeon. I picked him because he had done more sleeves than Dr. Jossart. Also, I went to the seminar where he was the surgeon and instantly hit it off with him. I liked his attitude and approach to bariatric surgery. He's definitely a no-nonsense kind of guy and can be blunt. Some people don't like that. They prefer Dr. J who they describe as more of a teddy bear. I prefer blunt though. Dr. C pushes me to do more than I think I can and I like that. I picked LapSF because of their excellent reputation. As a self-pay, I wanted to minimize my chance of complications and their stats are top-notch. I also wanted someone local, if at all possible. Also, their prices are completely reasonable for self-pay for this area. Finally, they get results. Their sleeve patients lose as much as their bypass patients and regain is less with the sleeve than with the bypass. Their overall results (with all surgery types) is better than national averages as well. If you have insurance, though, they do charge a program fee. This includes two years of after-care including unlimited access to their counselor and nutritionist. Most insurance companies won't pay for that, hence the fee. But not everyone is okay with paying an extra $5000-8000 on top of co-pays when they have insurance!